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In preparation of the 24 th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference in Rostock on 30 August – 1 September 2015, the BSPC’s Observer at HELCOM has published her report on HELCOM-related developments and activities. The Report can be downloaded on the Rapporteurs’ webpage .

In preparation of the 24 th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference in Rostock on 30 August – 1 September 2015, the BSPC’s Rapporteurs on Integrated Maritime Policy, MP Jochen Schulte and MP Jörgen Pettersson have published their report on developments in the field of Integrated Maritime Policy since their renewed appointment as co-rapporteurs at last year’s BSPC conference in Olsztyn. The Report can be downloaded on the Rapporteurs’ webpage .

In preparation of the 24 th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference in Rostock on 30 August – 1 September 2015, the BSPC Working Group on Innovation in Social- and Healthcare has published its Final Report on its activities throughout the two-year mandate of the WG as well as on its political recommendations for the conference. The WG Chairman, Ms Olaug Bollestad, will present the Final Report at the conference in Rostock. The report contains two parts: the printed Volume I entails the main conclusions of the WG, challenges and potentials it sees as well as political recommendations in the field of social- and healthcare. Volume II is a complementary addition to the Final Report, providing an in-depth overview of the activities of the WG, the expert presentations received, and the homework it compiled in preparation of its meetings, and – for now – is an online-version only. Both volumes can be downloaded on the Working Group’s webpage .

The BSPC Working Group on Innovation in Social- and Healthcare came together on the Aland Islands on 11-12 June for its sixths and final WG meeting. After thorough two-day deliberations the WG members agreed on the Final Report of their activities and conclusions, as well as on their political recommendations, which are incorporated into the draft resolution of the 24 th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference, to be held in Rostock 30 August – 1 September. After the meeting the WG members met with Ms Britt Lundberg, the Speaker of the Aland Parliament. The Final Report of the Working Group can be accessed on the Working Group’s webpage .

The former Chairman of the BSPC Working Group on Innovation in Social- and Healthcare, Latvian Member of Parliament and Minister of Defense Raimonds Vejonis has been elected President of his country. The Chairman of the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference and President of the Landtag Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has expressed her congratulations to the long-standing Member of the Standing Committee.

The highest Executive Committee of the BSPC, led by Chairman Sylvia Bretschneider, met for the second time in 2015 in the Ozeaneum of Stralsund, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, on 29 th May. Delegations from Åland-Islands, Baltic Assembly, Estonia, Finland, German Bundestag, Hamburg, Kaliningrad, Latvia, Lithuania, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Nordic Council, Russian Federation and St. Petersburg participated in the meeting. The work focused on the preparation for the 24 th annual conference, which will take place in Rostock-Warnemünde from 30 th August – 1 st September 2015. The Themes discussed at the annual conference will be cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region, cross-border cooperation in healthcare, health economy as well as the question of the sustainable and accessible social- and healthcare at the crossroads of the healthcare provision, the demographic shift and shrinking budgets in the individual states. Therefore, the conclusions of the current BSPC-Working Group “Innovation in Social and Healthcare” will be especially exploited. At the beginning of the Standing Committee Meeting the Minister of Labour, Gender Equality and Social Affairs Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Ms Birgit Hesse and the President of the University of Applied Sciences Stralsund, Prof. Dr. Falk Höhn and spoke about healthcare in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Minister Hesse focused in her speech the challenges of a sustainable and accessible healthcare in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The trend seems to go towards an urban-rural divide. On the one hand, there are the well-supplied urban areas, where even special options are easily accessible for all. And on the other hand, there are the sparsely populated rural areas, where it is already hard to ensure basic services in some parts. That is why, regional solutions are needed. Therefore, the administrative district of Vorpommern-Greifswald became a model region to identify the potentials and possibilities of individual regions in order to be able to improve medical care in a targeted way. To improve the current situation, measures to provide the infrastructure and to simplify the accessibility to care centres have already been taken, for example a regular bus service or the chance to order a minibus to realize a visit at a doctor. Prof. Dr. Höhn presented in his speech the University of Apllied Sciences with a focus on international cooperation in the area of medical scientific fields. He declared that worldwide contacts to more than 70 other universities and faculties exist, especially in the Baltic Sea Region. To tackle the challenges of the field of medical technology, new courses like medical information management / eHealth as well as medical informatics are offered at the School of Applied Science. Prof. Dr. Höhn also presented some completed scientific cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region, like the Telemedicine Network to improve the healthcare provision for tumours in the Euroregion of Pomerania. These two speeches showed the participants of the meeting both, the political and the scientific and the political, views of the future sustainability of healthcare in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Furthermore, the Standing Committee discussed the possibilities for the integration of the Youth Forum in the annual conference and the results and the implementation of last year’s resolution.

As current chairman of the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference Sylvia Bretschneider actively participated in the 4 th Northern Dimension Parliamentary Forum in Reykjavik, Iceland, 10 th – 11 th May. In the second session of the Parliamentary Forum “Green energy – opportunities and challenges”, Ms Bretschneider gave a statement in which she explained that there is a wide support for the “greening of the economy” at local, national, regional and global level. Even though, the transition to a greener economic paradigm is going on too slow. Ms Bretschneider stressed that the BSPC therefore launched a Working Group on Green Growth and Energy Efficiency in 2011 to find answers to the question on what can be done to increase the speed of progress towards a greener paradigm. She pointed out that the results of the Working Group were taken into the 22 nd annual Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference and its Resolution in 2012. So, as follow-up, there is still a main focus on Green Growth and its effects in the Baltic Sea Region. One impact is for example the participation of many Baltic Sea States in transnational projects. In the subsequent round table discussion, the BSPC chairman underlined: “Green Growth concerns everybody. It can be achieved through improved resource management, including reduced pollution and increased productivity, where long-term benefits replace short-term profits. New and green solutions must replace old and unsustainable habits.” The picture shows the Speaker of Althingi Mr Einar K. Guðfinnsson and the BSPC Chair Ms Sylvia Bretschneider.

Finnish MP Christina Gestrin represented the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference (BSPC) at the XVI International Environmental Forum “Baltic Sea Day” in St. Petersburg on March 18-20, 2015. Gestrin emphasised the need to continue the environmental cooperation, despite political tension around the Baltic Sea. “The constructive environmental cooperation must continue even in politically difficult times. The Baltic Sea Day is an important component of the efforts to promote a sustainable, green growth in the Baltic Sea Region”, said Gestrin. “At BSPC’s conference last August we, the parliamentarians, urged the governments to proceed with strong efforts and dedicated resources for the continued improvement and modernization of the waste water treatment capacity throughout the entire Baltic Sea Region. In opinion, the waste water treatment facilities in Kaliningrad have to be finished before the end of 2015, and that requires a continued cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region”, said Gestrin. In her speech to the Forum “Baltic Sea Day” Gestrin reminded the Baltic Sea states to honour their commitment to prohibit discharge of sewage from passenger ships. “In order to comply with stricter threshold values agreed by HELCOM, the Baltic Sea governments need to ensure continuous work to upgrade reception facilities for sewage in passenger ports in line with the Special Area Status of the Baltic Sea under Marpol Annex IV of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). We, the parliamentarians from all the EU-Member States of the Baltic Sea, share the opinion that the original dates for the prohibition of the discharge of sewage from passenger ships should be maintained.” Christina Gestrin is a long-standing member of the Standing Committee, co-observer of the BSPC at HELCOM and former chairman of the organization. For more information: Christina Gestrin, +358 50 511 3121

The BSPC Working Group on Innovation in Social and Healthcare came together for its fifth meeting on invitation by the Finnish Parliament in Tampere on 16-17 March. The meeting was preceded by a study tour of Tampere University Central Hospital and expert presentations on the prevention of diabetes & cardiovascular diseases and on electronic reporting linked to operations planning & budgeting at the communal level. The Clinical Nutritionist in Pirkanmaa Hospital District briefed the WG members on a program for the prevention of type 2 diabetes in Finland. The program has shown the magnitude of the diabetic epidemic in Finland, and has since been adopted in most Finnish health care centers for screening and interventions, has been included into local and regional prevention care protocols, and has further been adopted for the prevention of other non-communicable diseases. Most importantly, the project has shown that large-scale screening and effective lifestyle intervention for preventing type 2 diabetes are possible also in primary healthcare settings. The Chief Physician at the Centre of General Practice in Pirkanmaa Hospital District then briefed the WG members on electronic health reporting. The expert demonstrated that only when the promotion of welfare becomes an integral part of the operational and financial planning of local authorities and is linked to the preparation of the local budget, do local strategies and strategy work underlining the importance of welfare become serious politics. At Tampere University Central Hospital, the WG members received presentations about diabetes research and vaccine development at the hospital against type 1 diabetes. The insights gained in Tampere will be considered for the Final Report of the WG, which will be further elaborated during the remainder of the mandate of the Working Group, to be presented at the conference on 30 August – 1 September in Rostock-Warnemünde. The Working Group debated extensively over the overall content of the report and agreed to focus especially on innovation, cooperation, prevention, health economy, treatment, ethics & values. The sixth and final meeting of the Working Group will be held in Mariehamn on 11-12 June.

As another follow-up to the Standing Committee Meeting in Brussels by the initiative of the Aland delegation, the BSPC’s Observers at HELCOM, current Chairman Sylvia Bretschneider and Christina Gestrin, have addressed a letter to HELCOM concerning the implementation of the IMO Resolution MEPC.200 (62). The resolution defines the Baltic Sea as a so-called Special Area with the aim to prevent the discharges of sewage from ships in the Baltic Sea. Christina Gestrin personally handed over the letter at the 36 th HELCOM Commission Meeting in Helsinki, 3 – 4 March, and tabled it on the agenda of the meeting. Christina Gestrin strongly expressed that the parliamentarians from all the EU-Member States of the Baltic Sea share the opinion that the original dates for the prohibition of the discharge of sewage from passenger ships should be maintained. She declared: “We, the majority of the parliamentarians from around the Baltic Sea find it very disappointing that the states are not able to honour their commitments.” Christina Gestrin also drew attention to the 23 rd resolution of the BSPC, which asked the governments in the region to “proceed with strong efforts and dedicated resources for the continued improvement and modernization of the waste water treatment capacity throughout the entire Baltic Sea Region, in compliance with the stricter threshold values agreed by HELCOM, and to ensure continuous work to upgrade reception facilities for sewage in passenger ports in line with the Special Area Status of the Baltic Sea under MARPOL Annex IV of the International Maritime Organization.” The content of the letter was also discussed between BSPC Chairman Sylvia Bretschneider and HELCOM Executive Secretary Monika Stankiewicz in the margins of the Pan-European Dialogue in Cruise Tourism, which took place in Brussels on 4-6 March.

As a follow-up to the Standing Committee meeting in Brussels, the current BSPC Chairman, Ms Sylvia Bretschneider, has informed Commission President Juncker and the European Commissioner for Regional Policy, Ms Corina Cretu, about the BSPC’s serious concerns over initial ideas by the Commission’s DG REGIO to strike “health” out of the Action Plan of a revised EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. The BSPC has identified health policy as its main priority in its Work Program 2014/2015 and will focus this year’s annual conference in Rostock-Warnemünde on 30 August – 1 September on this field. DG REGIO’s proposals of adapting the Action Plan of the Strategy was also discussed at the January meeting of the Standing Committee in Brussels, where the Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, Mr Vytenis Andriukaitis, was also present.

“We as Baltic Sea parliamentarians have always tried to bring together economic and ecological aspects, as much as possible. Cruise Tourism constitutes an important pillar for our economic development. With more than 5 million passengers annually, the ferry and cruise shipping constitutes an important economic pillar, it contributes significantly to the economic and social development. Passenger numbers in the past 15 years have gone one way: up. This fact can be a mixed blessing. A major challenge for cruise tourism in the Baltic Sea is the set-up of port reception facilities e.g. for waste water. For this reason, we asked the governments in the Baltic Sea Region with last years resolution to proceed with strong efforts and dedicated resources for the continued improvement and modernization of the waste water treatment capacity throughout the entire Baltic Sea Region in compliance with the stricter threshold values agreed to HELCOM, and to ensure continous work to upgrade reception facilities for sewage in passenger ports in line with the Special Area Status for the Baltic Sea under MARPOL Annex IV of the International Maritime Organization. Just some days ago I have expressed this position again in a letter adressed to HELCOM. There are some uncertainties in the implementation of this. But we shall not give up. From my personal point of view we need an EU-wide concept for the set-up of port reception facilities and a launch of corresponding European funding programmes. And we need a political-strategic frame for the operative approach of cooperation between stakeholders in the tourism sector like the Baltic Sea Tourism Forum: with a view to the future strategic direction of the international Baltic Sea cooperation the previous activities require a continous further development. The transformation of projects into a steady and long-term cooperation and the commitment of the national political representatives and the national tourist associations are fundamentally important for this process. An also the first Pan-European dialogue between cruise operators, ports and coastal tourism stakeholders fits in this context and shall be continued.”